Ministry of Railways declines request to shift Maharaja’s saloon coach to Mysuru Rail Museum

The Maharani’s Saloon exhibited at the Mysuru Rail Museum.
| Photo Credit: M.A. SRIRAM

The Ministry of Railways has turned down a request to shift the Mysore Maharaja Saloon Coach from National Rail Museum in Delhi to Mysuru Rail Museum.

The request was made by Mysuru MP Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar recently on the grounds that the seat of power of Mysore Maharajas was Mysuru and hence it made sense to display the saloon coach in the city museum instead of Delhi.

A similar request was also made in 2022 by Pratap Simha who was the MP at that time and the Railways had rejected the plea.

The railway authorities in a letter dated September 30, 2024, stated that the Maharaja saloon coach was one of the prestigious exhibits at the National Rail Museum and it was over 125 years old. In addition, the exhibit now on display at the National Rail Museum in Delhi, could suffer irreparable damage during the long-distance transportation from there, said the authorities.

 A communique by Aashima Mehrotra, Executive Director, Heritage, Railway Board, addressed to the General Manager of the South Western Railway, stated that the Mysuru Rail Museum already has the Maharani’s Royal Carriage and a dining-cum-kitchen car as an exhibit.  

Though the authorities have not said in as many words that the plea for shifting the maharaja’s saloon is rejected, the local authorities have drawn this inference based on the contents of the communique. It also said that a virtual tour of the Maharaja’s Saloon was accessible to all on the Google Art and Culture platform, which makes it clear that the Maharaja’s saloon will not be shifted.

The saloon was used by Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar and the coach was built in 1899 at the Bangalore Workshop of Mysore State Railway.

Sources said it was part of a three-carriage rake that also included the Maharani’s coach and the dining-cum-kitchen car. The undercarriage of the coach was so designed that it could be used on broad gauge and metre gauge tracks as well, sources added. The cost of fabricating and building the coach was ₹29,508 each and the Maharani’s coach was built in 1914.